1 Penning - Hans

Hans ruled Norway as an absentee king for most of his reign, spending the bulk of his time managing Danish affairs and the fractious Kalmar Union. Norwegian coinage of this period was produced in severely limited quantities, and the small silver penning occupied the bottom rung of a monetary system already plagued by debasement and a shortage of bullion flowing through Bergen's declining Hanseatic trade infrastructure.

Brekke's attribution places this type among the rarest of Hans's Norwegian issues. Surviving examples almost never appear in circulation grades — not because they were well-preserved, but because so few were struck to begin with.